


i'll be the one to take you through the night

by MaddieandChimney



Series: Comfortember 2020 [2]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Mentions of Pregnancy, mentions of coronavirus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27391129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: Comfortember Day Three: Nightmare.Maddie is woken by the sound of her whimpering boyfriend after a long day.
Relationships: Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Series: Comfortember 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2044117
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	i'll be the one to take you through the night

The digital clock next to their bed flashes that it’s seven minutes past three in the morning when she’s awoken by the sound of whimpering next to her. Slowly sitting up to switch the lamp on before she finds herself warily focusing on her boyfriend’s face. It’s hard to know what to do – she’d had her own fair share of nightmares and he’d always been careful in waking her up in fear of how she’d react to being pulled from where her sleep filled mind took her.

It’s with a gentle touch that she presses her hand to his forehead, gently grazing her fingers through his hair as she bites down on her lip, staring down at him. It takes a moment for his eyes to flutter open and the guilt in them is almost immediate. “Hey, it’s okay.” Maddie is quick to whisper, leaning down just to press her lips against his nose in an attempt to soothe him, frowning when she feels the way he flinches away.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She hopes that he will say yes but isn’t surprised by the shake of his head as he moves to sit up, rubbing his eyes when her hand drops from his head. “I think maybe I could help?” Her hand moves to his stomach to rub slow, gentle circles over his tense abs, her lips against his bare shoulder as she snuggles into his side. “You were crying…” As if to make her point, she brushes her lips against the dried tear stains on his cheeks, nuzzling her nose into his cheek as she does.

“It’s just been a long day.”

Maddie nods her head in understanding; Chimney had just come off a twenty-four shift to find Maddie at home crying because she hadn’t felt the baby move all day. Really, there were only so many times she could hear the words ‘geriatric pregnancy’ alongside all of the gentle concern of the various doctors they’d seen in the midst of a pandemic and her _geriatric_ pregnancy (she resists the urge to roll her eyes at the memory). They’d rushed to the hospital with her boyfriend being forced to wait outside whilst she could have gotten the worst news. She’s just thankful that it appeared their baby was just having a quiet day, growing perfectly inside of her without any cause for concern as far as the doctor could see.

It had been a very long day and she had seen the pain in her boyfriends eyes the second she had walked out of those hospital doors and into his waiting arms. Then he’d been quiet the entire car journey home, silent tears tracing his pale cheeks with one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding hers so tightly that she’d have pulled back if he hadn’t been shaking so badly. Maddie isn’t surprised that those emotions and thoughts he’d pent up in those few hours, accumulating with the stress of his job and the pregnancy and all of the things he was missing out on that he’d been looking forward to had turned into a nightmare.

Being pregnant and working through a worldwide pandemic was beyond difficult, she’d had her own fair share of panic attacks and haunting nightmares. Chimney had been better at hiding it, although she’d often found herself waking up alone and finding him pacing the kitchen or cooking something at a god awful hour in the morning in a way to try and distract himself from the anxiety she knows he’s suffering through. “It has,” She finally whispers, dropping her hand from his stomach to lift his towards her ever-growing bump, a smile on her face as she does, “but jellybean is okay and I know today was scary because—you wouldn’t have been there and you are the only person in the world I would ever want by my side for everything but you’re going to be there for all the things that matter, okay?”

There’s a look on his face as though he’s disbelieving that she could know exactly what’s going through his head, as though he’d hidden his fear from her well enough. Sometimes he forgets how well she knows him, how she can see through the walls he tries to put up no matter how hard he tries… how patient she can be to wait for him to open up to her. “I-I know that, it’s just all too much sometimes. We’re meant to be enjoying this and—we don’t even know if I’ll be allowed in for the birth.”

“Even if I have to have this baby at home, I will make sure you are there for the birth.” She promises, knowing she shouldn’t and that the doctors would highly advise against her having a home birth but if it meant the difference between Chimney holding her hand and being there for the birth of his child, it’s a decision they’ll have to make closer to the time. Her lips trail against his jawline, settling on his chin when she lets out a sigh as their baby kicks against his hand. “You don’t have to tell me what you were dreaming about but—please tell me that you know that I love you and jellybean loves you and we are going to be happy beyond this hellish year. We are going to have our little family and we are going to love him or her so, so much.”

Maddie had always thought if she’d gotten pregnant, she wouldn’t have the patience to keep the sex a secret from herself but it hadn’t felt right finding out without him by her side and writing it down somehow didn’t feel as special as it should have. At least there’s a smile on his face when he brings his other hand to her stomach, each of them pressing to either side of her twenty-eight week bump, eyes always alight with complete wonder when he does.

“I do know that, I do—I’m just scared and feeling a bit left behind sometimes, I guess.” It’s with a deep frown that he’s looking at her, the wonder gone and replaced with unshed tears until she’s diving herself forward to press her forehead to his, hands coming to either side of his face as she gently brushes her thumbs against the soaked skin of his cheeks.

It’s with a small nod of her head that she gives him a small smile, “We’ll never leave you behind.”

“Promise?” There’s a weakness to his voice that breaks her heart, lips barely brushing against his until she’s nodding her head and moving each other hands to gently push on his shoulders until he’s lying down again and she can place her hand back on his stomach, focusing on offering him any level of comfort she possibly can in the hopes it’ll lull him back to sleep eventually.

“I promise. We promise.”


End file.
